Vegas, baby. Vegas.

Fourth-year Tim Froh of Broover, Fourth-year David Pisano of Snell–Hitchcock, and sociology graduate student Dan Kimmell of G.A.S.H. proudly display items #6 and #10.

On judgment day, the first floor of Ida Noyes Hall resembles either a middle-school science fair gone horribly awry, or, alternatively, an episode of Antiques Roadshow, also gone horribly awry. By the open door of the ORCSA office, an exhausted scavvie catches a few winks, but for the most part, they’re all wired, bounding to and fro with last-minute errands. A member of Audacity of Pope is frantically sent back to headquarters to fetch a missing item, and others scamper about in preparation for upcoming presentations and events.

Even amid the spectacle, fourth-year Tim Froh stands out. He’s decked out in a bright yellow t-shirt with big red lettering—which almost makes you forget the fact that he’s also sporting a white feather boa and a floppy, turquoise-tinted hat that would make Dumbledore blush. The words on the t-shirt, however, speak louder than the hat: “Girls direct to you in 20 minutes.”

He’s just returned from Vegas.

Froh, along with eight other brave souls, were chosen by their teams to be “Scav Warriors.” They assembled Thursday morning at 3:30 A.M. at the Reynolds Club, where judges placed pillows over the Warriors’s heads, fed them jello, and drove them to Midway. It was only then that the nine were handed itineraries and informed of their destination by head judge Jim Ryan.

The Warriors had little idea what they were getting into having been given only a set of prerequisites, such as the ability to swim 200 meters, uninterrupted. As a result their expectations were mixed:

“We had thought it would be some kind of sadistic camping trip…but no, Vegas.” said Dan Kimmell, a graduate student in sociology, and a member of the Graduate/Alumni Scav hunt team (G.A.S.H.).

Froh, meanwhile, took a different approach: “When I signed up, I was sort of drunk and I was in my house meeting and I decided to do it…although I think even if I was sober I would have agreed.”

Froh and Kimmell are wearing identical t-shirts—proof that not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It’s no coincidence; in fact, every Scav Warrior is wearing a variation of the shirt, also known as item #6 of the ScavAir Addendum. The clue states: “GIRLS DIRECT TO YOU IN 20 MINUTES. T-SHIRT DIRECT TO OCCIDENTAL JUDGES AT OCCIDENTAL JUDGMENT. [12 POINTS].”

The reference is to an escort service operating out of Old Vegas, whose handlers wear the bright shirts while handing out cards to prospective clients on the street (#10: “As many unique escort service cards as you can find [0.1 points each]”). Finding the t-shirts was easy enough but actually obtaining them required a bit of haggling. Initially, the Warriors were told to fork over $50 apiece, or roughly half of the $100 or so they each brought to Vegas. In the end, they each shelled out $30 each for the item.